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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Review: The Mapmaker's War: A Legend by Ronlyn Domingue

Title: The Mapmaker's War: A Legend
Author: Ronlyn Domingue
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Atria
Publish Date: March 5, 2013
Source: I received a copy from the PR; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

You're a fantasy fan.

You like strong characters.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "This will be the map of your heart, old woman. In
an ancient time, in a faraway land, a young woman named Aoife is
allowed a rare apprenticeship to become her kingdom’s mapmaker, tasked
with charting the entire domain. Traveling beyond its borders, she finds
a secretive people who live in peace, among great wealth. They claim to
protect a mythic treasure, one connected to the creation of the world.
When Aoife reports their existence to her kingdom, the community is
targeted as a threat. Attempting to warn them of imminent danger, Aoife
is exiled for treason and finds refuge among the very people who had
been declared her enemy. With them, she begins a new life surrounded by
kindness, equality, and cooperation. But within herself, Aoife has no
peace. She cannot share the grief she feels for the home and children
she left behind. She cannot bear the warrior scars of the man she comes
to love. And when she gives birth to their gifted daughter, Aoife cannot
avoid what the child forces her to confront about her past and its
truth. On this most important of journeys, there is no map to guide her.
In this tale—her autobiography— Aoife reveals her pain and joy, and
ultimately her transformation. The Mapmaker’s War is a mesmerizing, utterly original adventure about love and loss and the redemptive power of the human spirit."

My Two Cents: "The
Mapmaker's War" was a very interesting story to me. I liked the story
itself. There is a little bit of fantasy and a little bit in this book
that really drew me in and kept me reading until the last page. This
story is definitely very inventive and will be perfect for readers who
want their fantasy reading to be unique.

The main character,
Aoife (which I strangely learned to pronounce by watching E!'s reality
tv show, Chasing the Saturdays, about the British girl band - hah), is
fascinating. She becomes a mapmaker's apprentice, which is pretty much
unheard of for a woman in her kingdom. I love stories about people who
overcome the odds and circumstances of their life to do something really
awesome. This is most definitely what Aoife does in this book.

While
I enjoyed the story, I was jarred by the entire book being written in
second person point of view. I found it very distracting and very
difficult to get used to. This book was a slow read for me because of
the writing style. I think it takes away a lot from the book. I had to
keep re-reading various sections to make sure that I was following what
was going on. There are also no quotation marks used, which made it a
little hard to follow who was speaking to whom and if there was any
internal monologues involved. This aspect also slowed my reading a
little bit.

Overall, I really liked the story but I am not sure that the writing was my cup of tea.

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I have always loved to read. I decided to get into book blogging to share the books I love with other fellow readers! For any questions, comments, concerns or just to chat, shoot me an email at abookishaffair(at)gmail(dot)com ! I usually respond to emails quickly!
All opinions on this blog are my own, regardless of where I got the book!